I don't have the space to
highlight all of the buffoonery going on right now across Cuyahoga County,
though our community reporters have been doing a pretty good job keeping up.

Anyone who has followed my
columns knows I can't resist pettiness, irrationality or entitlement in the
burbs. (Hello, Seven Hills and Beachwood, to name a couple.)

Two suburbs in particular
deserve taxpayer scrutiny.

Let's start in Olmsted Falls,
a suburb of 9,000 in the southwest corner of Cuyahoga County that's easily confused
with its neighbors, Olmsted Township, North Olmsted and Strongsville. If not
for the occasional missing pet, odd crime or high-school sports rivalry, the
town wouldn't earn much notice outside of its borders.

At the moment, the new City
Hall administration and former administration -- and their respective allies --
are feuding.

Mayor Ann Marie
Donegan, who beat long-time incumbent Robert Blomquist in a contentious
election last November, couldn't find personnel files or access locked file
cabinets when she arrived at City Hall earlier this month. A representative from
the Regional Income Tax Agency had to help the city access its payroll system
to pay employees. And there was confusion over computer passwords.

Donegan blames Blomquist for a lack of cooperation. Blomquist blames Donegan for a lack of
preparation. "She's in over her head," he told Northeast Ohio Media Group reporter Bruce Geiselman. Blomquist
also said Donegan never reached out for transition help.

Blomquist bears the
bulk of the responsibility for an orderly transition. He didn't owe it to Donegan. He owed it to City Hall employees
and to residents -- who paid his salary for years. He did not need the
incoming mayor to ask him to help. He should have acted like a professional and established a protocol to ensure an
orderly transition.

Since Blomquist blew it, City
Council ought do its job and pass legislation that lays out requirements for
orderly transitions in the future. But they should be ashamed that they
even need to do this.

In the meantime, the suburb needs
to stay focused on running the government. Its mayor and council recently stumbled over hiring a law director.

Now, on to Richmond Heights in eastern Cuyahoga County.
Its new mayor, Miesha Headen, has been generating headlines since taking
office in December for her heavy-handed style.

She faces a tall challenge in reshaping a City
Hall previously led by the same politicians for 24 years. So, I want to give her
some leeway. But her posturing suggests the new power has gone straight to her
head, especially for someone who won election by fewer than 100 votes.

In her first week, Headen forced out the
finance director and dumped the former mayor's secretary, who was ordered out
of City Hall under police escort. The mayor claims it was a necessary protocol
given the secretary's access to sensitive information.

Yeah, you wouldn't those want those public
records exposed to the public.

Here's my favorite example of Headen's inflated
ego. In her first meeting with city directors, she reviewed the charter's mayoral
powers with them. (And she had her husband, lawyer Raymond Headen, join her.) Her explanation for such a meeting
couldn't be more stilted:

"We spent time reading through the section of the Richmond Heights
charter that defines executive authority," Headen told Northeast Ohio
Media Group reporter Sara Dorn. "It is my first week as mayor of Richmond
Heights, and it's my strong belief — as I've managed many people in my life —
that they fulfill expectations best when they are explained upfront."

Such self-importance and micromanaging is more typical in places like Cleveland, or New Jersey,
though no less acceptable. It seems really ridiculous in a community of 10,000
residents.

Such pettiness in Richmond
Heights and Olmsted Falls only reinforces the reality that suburban leaders too often govern unchecked. And their actions continue to build the case that taxpayers just don't need
so many separate governments, or egos.

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